Digging into soulful praise and worship with this prize double-CD set from Mark Beswick and the Power Praise Worship Band is easy.

Beswick is one of the United Kingdom’s most gifted praise leaders, pouring his soul and his heart into his musical work. In doing so, he pulls you right along with him in his vertical praise.

On The King Is Coming, the focus is completely on everything that is important in praise and worship. Infused with a gentleness of spirit that comes through on the vocals, and a sensitivity that is the essence of the instrumental work, the first disk isn’t so much a set of songs as it is an overall experience.

Together with Howard Francis, Beswick writes and arranges original compositions for choir, soloists, orchestrated band and horns. Beswick’s buttery vocals set the tone on the live album, with everything else falling into line.

The project begins with a couple of choral focused songs to set the atmosphere (“Welcome”, “Holy Spirit”), with the latter featuring memorable lead vocal ad libs from Brendan Guyatt. His soulful tenor appears later on the album on “Thank You”, a gorgeous song embedded with melodic classical elements, amidst rhythms.

The title track, "The King Is Coming", is a jubilant groove, and leads easily into the follow up cut “Wave Your Hands”, which further fosters joy, helped by loads of percussion, bells and island beats. “If you know the Lord’s been good to ya, wave your hands and praise the Lord”, is the call and response between Beswick and choir.

Gillian Nembhard, vocalist of urban sensation Raymond & Co., adds ad libs on “Mighty God”, a choir-powered cut that transitions into a driving, piano-pounding and brassy Latin punch.

The second disk is really a bonus, being a re-release of the 8-song True Praises album (see album review), the first project from Beswick and the Power Praise Worship Band. With a little more focus on punch, edge and groove than the first disk, this will no doubt be an unexpected blessing for anyone picking up the album.